Critique of
Boston Herald story on
fatal Dana Laird crash.

[Though the Herald is a tabloid newspaper and has a
reputation for sensationalism, this story is more accurate and detailed than the Globe story. A Herald reporter apparently went to the crash
scene, as this article quotes an eyewitness directly. Unlike the Globe article, this
article avoids editorial bias, and puts the information that Laird was riding in a bike
lane adjacent to parked cars near the top. I have a few comments, in the footnotes -- John
S. Allen]

Cyclist dies under bus swerving to avoid door

by Doug Hanchett

Wednesday, July 3, 2002

A 36-year-old Cambridge cyclist was killed in Central Square yesterday when she swerved
to avoid a car door and went flying under the rear wheel of an MBTA bus on Massachusetts
Avenue.[1]

Dana Laird was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the 3:30 p.m. accident,
police said.

Reggie Riley of Cambridge was waiting for the Route 1 bus to Harvard when he saw it
halt suddenly short of its stop.

"I started walking down to see what happened,'' said Riley. "I saw something
on the ground and went (closer) to see what it was and I said, 'Oh my God. It's a
person.''

Within minutes, hundreds of people lined Mass. Ave., which was cordoned off for hours
while investigators tried to determine what happened in the rush-hour accident.

Laird's body, covered by a white sheet, lay for about an hour on the hot asphalt - just
feet from her aqua mountain bike.

The bike was next to a black Honda CRV with marks on the door, 'suggesting contact had
been made,'' according to Pesaturo. Witnesses said the bike flipped up in the air before
the victim went under the bus, indicating she was struck by the opening door.[3]

'Witnesses share the same account - that the door opened, and she swerved,'' he said.

Laird was riding in a designated bike lane that runs parallel to parked cars.

After the accident, the driver hunkered down in a nearby flower shop waiting for his
attorney to arrive.

Riley, himself a cyclist, said motorists need to be more careful, especially in a
bike-friendly city like Cambridge. '`I got whacked by a door last year and it took me nine
months to recover from that,'' he said. '`But that's like a mosquito bite compared to
this.''

Laurel J. Sweet contributed to this report.

1) Notice that the Herald indicates that Laird
swerved. The Globe does not give any such detail about her actions.

2) The Herald indicates the charges which were
filed against the motorist, while the Globe does not.

3) Robert Winters's photos of the door and the
bicycle do not show any significant damage. There could have been no heavy impact against
the door. It is possible that Laird "flipped up in the air" due to loss of
control of the bicycle in an attempt to avoid the door by swerving and/or braking.